An Indiana man convicted of killing four people decades ago, including his brother and sister's fiance, was sentenced to death Wednesday, marking the state's first execution in 15 years. .
Joseph Corcoran, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:44 a.m. CST at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana, the Indiana Department of Corrections said in a statement. Corcoran was scheduled to be executed using the powerful sedative pentobarbital, but the statement from state officials did not mention that drug. Corcoran's execution was the 24th in the United States this year.
He was killed in July 1997 by his brother James Corcoran, 30, his sister's fiance Robert Scott Turner, 32, and two other men, Timothy G. Bricker, 30. ) and Douglas A. Stilwell. , 30.
According to court records, before he shot and killed the four victims, Corcoran was stressed out because his sister and Turner's upcoming marriage meant he had to move from the Fort Wayne, Ind., home where he lived with his siblings. It is said that
While incarcerated for these murders, Corcoran bragged about shooting his parents to death in Steuben County in northern Indiana in 1992. He was charged with their murders, but was acquitted.
Last summer, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced plans to resume the state's executions, which had been suspended for several years due to a national shortage of lethal injection drugs.
The state has provided limited details about the execution process, and media witnesses are not allowed under state law. However, Corcoran chose a reporter from the Indiana Capital Chronicle as one of his witnesses, the Indiana political website reported.
Indiana and Wyoming are the only states that do not allow members of the media to witness state executions, according to a recent report from the Death Penalty Information Center.
Corcoran's lawyers have been fighting the death penalty for years, arguing that he suffers from severe mental illness that affects his ability to understand and make decisions. This month, his lawyers asked the Indiana Supreme Court to halt his execution, but the request was denied.
Corcoran lost his federal appeal in 2016. But lawyers last week asked the U.S. District Court for Northern Indiana to halt the execution, citing Corcoran's severe mental illness, and to hold a hearing to determine whether the sentence is unconstitutional. The court declined to intervene on Friday, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit did the same on Tuesday.
Corcoran's lawyers then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an emergency order to halt the execution, but the high court denied the request late Tuesday, ending Corcoran's options with the court.
Defense attorney Larry Komp said he was disappointed with the high court's decision, adding that Corcoran's mental health issues had not been properly assessed.
“There has never been a hearing to determine whether he is eligible to be executed,” Comp said in a statement to The Associated Press. “It is a complete failure of the rule of law that the death penalty is carried out when the law and due process are not followed.”
After that, Corcoran's only hope was Holcomb, who could commute Corcoran's death sentence. However, that commutation never occurred, and the execution proceeded as scheduled.
At midnight, a group of anti-death penalty activists began singing “Amazing Grace.”
Holcomb's office released a statement early Wednesday morning following Corcoran's execution.
“Joseph Corcoran's case has been heard repeatedly over the past 25 years, including seven times in the Indiana Supreme Court and three times in the United States Supreme Court, the most recent of which will be heard tonight. His sentence has never been overturned and was carried out in accordance with the court's orders,” Holcomb said in a statement.
The last state execution in Indiana was in 2009, when Matthew Wrinkles was sentenced to death for the 1994 murders of his wife, her brother, and sister-in-law. Since then, there have been 13 executions in Indiana, but they were initiated and carried out by federal authorities. in 2020 and 2021 at the federal prison in Terre Haute.
State officials said they were unable to continue executions because several drugs used in lethal injections were no longer available.
There have been shortages across the country for years because drug companies have refused to sell their products for that purpose. As a result, states including Indiana are turning to compounding pharmacies, which manufacture drugs specifically for customers. Some people turn to more readily available drugs, such as the sedatives pentobarbital and midazolam, but critics say both can cause severe pain.
Religious groups and disability rights groups are opposing his execution. About a dozen people, some holding candles, held a vigil late Tuesday outside the prison, which is surrounded by a barbed wire fence in a residential area about 60 miles (90 kilometers) east of Chicago. I prayed.
“You can build a society without giving government authorities the right to execute your own people,” said Bishop Robert McCrory of the Gary Diocese, who led the prayer.
On Tuesday night, other death penalty opponents also demonstrated outside the prison, some holding placards reading “The death penalty is not the answer” and “We will not forget the victims, but we will not tolerate more killings.” Some people had it.
“There is no need or benefit to this execution. It's all a show,” said Abraham Borowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, his group that protests all executions in the United States.
Prison officials said in a brief statement Tuesday evening that Corcoran “requested Ben & Jerry's ice cream for his final meal.”
Late Tuesday, Corcoran said goodbye to his relatives, including his wife, Tahina Corcoran, and spoke to reporters outside the prison about their faith and memories of going to high school together. She once again asked the governor of Indiana to commute her husband's death sentence.
Tahina Corcoran said her husband has a “severe mental illness” and she doesn't think he fully understands what's happening to him.
“He's in shock. He doesn't understand,” she said.
